Our greatest fear

Living unseen creates many fears. There is fear of never being good enough, of never being noticed, and of being abandoned. I have learned, though, that there is another fear. Today's post is a poem by Marianne Williamson that teally speaks to me.

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

Behind the Scene

Living unseen is hard and we can feel that the barriers we have to overcome are too much for us. We feel alone and forgotten. Today's post is about that feeling

Behind the Scene 

    My ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8

 

    In high school, I had the chance to be in some plays.  From the audience everything looks calm and smooth.  Actors enter and exit flawlessly and the scenery is changed at the appropriate time. From the other side of the curtain, though, it is a completely different picture.  Tech people are bringing lights up and down. Make up is being touched up, and costumes are being changed.  When the curtain goes down, prop managers scurry on and off stage.  The props and scenery from one scene are often completely different from the one before.  Places may be marked with glow in the dark tape.  Think of the hours of practice that have taken place beforehand, with movements mapped out and practiced.

Can you imagine an actor making an entrance onto a dark or semi-dark stage?  He has made the entrance dozens of times before, but this time something is different.  The prop manager did not get a piece of scenery off the stage from the previous scene. It happens to be right in the way and the actor trips or even falls.  The audience gasps, or maybe snickers.

    There was a time recently when I was waiting for something from God. I was doing everything I was supposed to do. I had confessed every sin I ever thought about committing, fearing that the reason I was not receiving what I was waiting for was because I was being punished. I begged. I pleaded. I cried. I got angry. I told God that He was not paying attention, and He apparently wasn't doing anything about my situation. Finally I got a picture of a scene backstage, with prop managers scurrying madly. God reminded me that He is in control, and that I would not want to make an entrance until the stage was set, because I did not want to fall over something. 

          I received what I was waiting for, and it has been fantastic. I see some of the things that were worked out, but I know there were many more that I will never see.   I have no idea what God is doing when He appears to be doing nothing.  We need to have faith, because God has seen the end from the beginning. Nothing surprises him and he is in control. Take courage as you wait for what you ask for. God is faithful.

LORD, Help us to remember that there are things we cannot see and that you will never leave us.

Destroyed?

Sometimes when we are living unseen, we feel unseen even by God. If you are in the middle of struggle, hopefully today's post will give you courage.

Do not remember the former things for behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?  Is. 43:18-19

            A few years ago, my children were going through a program with the hospice designed to help them cope with loss and grief. The program included having the children create memorials as a way to honor their loved ones and explaining the grief process to them in ways they could understand. One of the activities really spoke to me. The facilitators had the children draw a picture on a ceramic tile.  It was colorful and really pretty. Then, they smashed the tile into dozens of small pieces. They used the broken pieces of tile to create a mosaic. The point that the facilitators made to the children is that even though the mosaic was not like the original tile picture, it was still beautiful.

            This week my life feels like the ceramic tile. I am not even sure I know where all the little pieces are.  That’s O.K., though, because God does. I have seen His hand in so many ways this week. Remember when God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house? The clay was “marred in the potter’s hand.” Rather than throwing it away, he remade it into something different. God did the same for Israel, and He does the same for us. How many of you are someplace in your life that did not show up on your radar a few years ago?  If you had told me a year ago that I would be sitting at my computer today working on my second book, I would have laughed at you. A year ago there was no first book, just a dream and lots of reasons it wouldn’t work. Here I am, though. My family is having growing pains, but at least there is growth. God is orchestrating changes in so many areas I am frankly a little dizzy trying to keep up.

            Are you dealing with change and loss as well? Chances are good that you are, because if you are reading this you are probably human. It is tempting to try to remake our lives and glue the picture back together, but maybe we need to give God our broken pieces and let Him remake something. There is an old camp song that says:

                             Something beautiful, something good.

                            All my confusion He understood.

                             All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife

                           But He made something beautiful of my life

            I always thought that the song was talking about salvation. While it is true that God does make something beautiful of our sinful lives when we first meet Him, He also continues to make us more and more beautiful when we are broken. If you are broken, let Him help you see the new thing He is doing. If you love someone who is broken, be there. Point them to the Artist who can give them new beauty.

            One final thought—I never noticed until today where the clay was. It was marred in the potter’s hand. What a comfort to know that when the world is spinning so fast and we are being pulled and molded, we are still in His Hand.

LORD, help us remember that you are the God who makes all things new.

Protecting what is Precious

Today we have more wisdom from Kurt Boyland about loving and caring for yourself. You are precious and must treat yourself with love and compassion. Here are some practical suggestions for doing that.

I will argue less with people that like to argue.

I will be pulled less into toxic interactions.

I give up trying to prove others wrong and prove myself right.

I will examine and assess my expectations of the person or situation.

I give myself permission to change my mind.

I give myself permission to have a way out of situations where I feel stuck or threatened.

It's OK to decline invitations.

It's OK to say no.

I will assume less and seek clarification more.

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!

Living unseen can be especially difficult when you fall or fail.  Read on to learn some helpful hints

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Rom 3:23

                It was a beautiful scene-a peaceful meadow on top of a mountain.  Pine trees surrounded the meadow and tall grass swayed gently in the summer breeze. Then a rattletrap bus wound its way up the mountain roads and stopped at the edge of the meadow. Not so peaceful now. The bus doors opened and 40 teenagers piled out.  OK, forget peaceful meadows and opt for giant playground.  We ran and jumped and yelled. Kids set out tarps and towels for sunbathing.  Braver ones climbed trees. Swaggering boys flirted with giggling girls, and groups of giggling girls whispered about the swaggering boys.

                 I followed a group of my friends racing across the meadow. It had rained earlier as it does nearly every day in the mountains, but the sun was bright now.  Unfortunately, the grass was still slippery. As we ran down a small slope, I lost my footing and went sliding. My fall was broken by something soft and squishy. A COW PATTY! Word travels fast among teens, and my predicament was the talk of the meadow. There were some that tried to help, but it seemed to my 14-year-old mind that most of the others were laughing at me.  This is not good at any age, but at 14 it is awful. Now I was hurt, smelly and embarrassed. There was no wiping off the damage.  Fortunately, one of the girls had brought along a pair of shorts for sunbathing, which she let me use. The rest of the afternoon did not go too badly. The problem came when it was time to go back to camp. The counselors would not let me wear the shorts back to camp. (Someone might lust after me.) I had to put on the stinky jeans to get back on the bus.  It was probably only twenty minutes back to camp, but it felt like the ride took forever. I sat in the front seat alternately seething at the “jokes” being flung my way from kids who refused to sit near me, and crying from the embarrassment of the situation.

                Fast forward ____ years. Let’s just say several. I have been taking martial arts with my children. It really is a lot of fun. We were working on judo and how to fall.  Although falling sounds natural, there are actually things you can do to fall more safely.  I am not 14 anymore and the first few times we worked on falling, I did less than wonderful.  I understand the concept, and when we practice in relatively slow motion, I can do OK. In theory, you practice in slow motion and then when you are thrown or pushed, your body remembers what to do. Good theory. I did notice one important thing, though. When I fell and did less than wonderful, no one laughed. No matter which class member I was working with, they helped me up and the teachers offered suggestions to help me do better next time.

Sure enough, I am getting better.  I only knocked my head off the mat a couple of times last week.

                In life, just like martial arts, falling is inevitable. My question is this. What kind of Christians are we when people around us fall? Are we the kind of Christians who point out the cow patty on their behinds? Do we whisper about their mistakes or refuse to sit next to them in church? Do we help them up? Do we point them to wise counsel who will help them do better next time? The other question is just as important. What kind of Christians do you want around you when you are the one who falls?

                 The Bible says, if anyone sins, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. We are on this road together.  Let's encourage each other when we fall. It may be the difference in someone giving up the struggle and getting up again.

Lord, help us be the kind of believers who pick each other up when we fall.

Use for intended purposes

Use for intended purposes

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do his good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should do. Eph. 2:10

When I was teaching special education reading, one of my favorite lessons was having the students read instructions, disclaimers and cautions from products. There are some really brilliant disclaimers out there. One on a hair dryer says “Do not use while sleeping?” Powdered baby formula says “Be sure to add water before feeding”. Then of course there is the famous “Contents may be hot” in the coffee pots and coffee cups. A sign on an electric blender reminds users “Never remove food from blades while this product is operating.”

I was surprised at the admonitions on so many products “Use product only for its intended purpose.”  Regardless of the infomercials, you should not use the ginsu knife to cut through pipe. You should also not use a blender to grind concrete into powder, although it is done. Ephesians tells us that just like the ginsu knives, the baby formula and the blender we have an intended purpose.  We have been given gifts and talents, and for the best results, we should use them to glorify God.  We know of musicians who spent years playing in bars and night clubs, only to turn their talent to God after being saved.  Many of them say they are much more satisfied than when they were using their talents for themselves.  No matter what your talent, this proves to be true. How wonderful that God not only prepared works for you to do, but empowered you to do them.

We need to be willing to look for our gifts and find how we can use them for the kingdom.  We also must guard against the trap of saying we are not worthy for our works to be used. This book is a perfect example.  I wrote for years and argued with God that I was not worthy to use my writings for him. While I did not bury my “talent” in the ground, I did bury it in the backs of notebooks until God dealt with all of my reasons He could  not use it.  Use your gifts and nurture the gifts you see in  others.  The finished work will be beautiful. 

 As we live unseen, we are tempted to believe that we have no purpose. Do not fall for the lie.

LORD, Help us to see and live in our purpose today.

FEEDBACK: Do you know what your purpose in life is? How did you find out and what makes it hard for you to live up to it?

Why do you go to church

Today's guest blogger is Gloria Bradshaw.  She is another faithworks volunteer and instructor.  She has wisdom today that she learned from her grandchildren

Aren’t grandchildren wonderful? I often marvel at how my grandchildren challenge me in ways that I suppose my children might have if I had taken the same kind of time to really listen to them as I do my grandchildren.

Not long ago, as we were going somewhere in the car, our youngest granddaughter asked me, “Mimi, why do you go to church all the time?” I offered an answer to her something like, “Well, I want to praise God for all that He has done for me.” But since that day, I have often asked myself that same question, “Why do I go to church all the time?”

Recently, answers to that question have emerged more than once from the time spent in worship, but one particular Sunday an answer popped out of the sermon. I go to church to find the strength to continue with the challenges that life brings. In the sermon that day, the preacher reminded us that our individual battles belong to God and that He is already victorious over all that we face or will face in this life. He also said something that really resonated with me. “Satan cannot stand in the face of repentance.” As I meditate on that concept, I realize that as I truly repent and turn from the habits and practices of the flesh that plague me, I allow the Spirit of God to fill me and grant me strength to live in the full power of that life-giving Spirit that produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, gentleness, etc. If I had not gone to church today, I would have missed that message and the blessing that it will be to me as I live through the coming week.

But there’s more. Couldn’t God have given me this insight in other ways—through family or private meditation or simply by zapping me with the message as I was navigating grocery store aisles? Of course, I could have gotten the message any of those ways. However, there would still be something missing, and that’s what I finally came to grips with this morning. I have always thought of myself as a competent, stable person with the strength to encounter any difficulty head-on and not be defeated. Yet when I get to the bottom of what gives me this strength, it is not only the power of the Spirit living in me but the combination of that power with the association and support of my community of faith that helps me face temptation with courage and the strength to stand against the “darts” that Satan throws at me. I don’t have to be an army of one fighting my battles; I have the power of the army of God, including my community of faith, standing behind me. Thanks be to God for this great blessing!